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10 Effective Sales Strategies for Small Businesses You Need to Know About

Estimated read time: 7 minutes

If you’re a small business owner, you know how important it is to have a strong sales strategy. After all, without sales, your business can’t survive. However, after conducting voice of the customer research with over 1300 small to mid-sized manufacturers, we heard loud and clear they need help with sales strategy. But with so many different sales strategies and experts out there with their own opinions, out there, how do you know which ones will work best for your small business?

In this article, we’ll explore 10 effective sales strategies that small businesses can use to drive revenue growth and increase customer loyalty. You may think it can’t be this simple..but it can be. Our no smoke and mirrors process is actually simple to follow. From understanding your target market to building strong customer relationships and leveraging social media, these strategies will help you create a winning sales strategy for your small business.

Understanding Your Target Market and Customers

Why knowing your target market and customers is crucial for effective sales?

Understanding your target market  and current customers is the first step in creating a successful sales strategy. By knowing who you’re selling to, you can tailor your approach to their needs and preferences. We must understand your customers today. What challenges are they facing? What are their goals? How is their business evolving?

Tips for defining your target market and understanding their needs and preferences

Building Relationships with Customers

Why building relationships with customers is important for repeat business?

Building strong relationships with your customers is key to generating repeat business. Loyal customers are more likely to recommend your products or services to others. When you read the research, most salespeople are receiving less than 45% of the benefits their relationships could have with their customers. Customers today do not want or need a “rep” they want and need trusted advisors helping them meet the goals of their business. Salespeople must have multiple relationships within key customer not just one with the buyer. Most key decisions are being made by four or more decision makers and influencers. Sales must identify those decisionmakers and strategically build relationships with each one.

Strategies for building strong relationships

  • Personalized communication: Address customers by name and tailor your communication to their preferences.
  • Exceptional customer service: Respond quickly to customer inquiries and resolve issues promptly.
  • Solicit feedback: Ask customers for their opinions and show that you value their input.
  • Understand how your customers make money
  • Connect the dots between what you sell and how it impacts your customer’s bottom-line
  • Identify the 4-5 key decision making contacts you must build relationships with
  • Speak the language of your customers

Leveraging Social Media

The role of social media in modern sales strategies?

Social media has become an essential tool for connecting with customers and reaching new audiences. By leveraging social media, you can build brand awareness and engage with potential customers. Today market leading teams are taking an omni channel approach to have conversations with customers leveraging LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, emails, dimensional mailers, phone calls, Zoom meetings, Articles in trade publications, white paers and videos to name a few.

Tips for effectively using social media

  • Build your content map for 6-12 months
  • Consistent message in each social platform
  • Choose the right platforms: Focus on the social media platforms where your target audience is most active.
  • Post regularly: Maintain a consistent posting schedule to keep your audience engaged.
  • Use visuals: Share eye-catching images and videos to capture your audience’s attention.
  • Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages and encourage interaction.

Focusing on Benefits, Not Features

Why focusing on benefits is more effective than features?

Stop playing feature and benefit BINGO with customers. Customers are more interested in how your product or service will benefit them rather than the features it offers. Focusing on benefits makes your sales pitch more compelling and relatable. When surveyed over 65% of C-Suite executives shared they would meet with a salesperson if they had a compelling business case. We must teach our sales teams how to build business cases and have the business acumen required for those conversations that lead to revenue.

Strategies for highlighting benefits

  • Connect benefits to customer needs: Explain how your product or service addresses their pain points.
  • Use stories: Share customer success stories to demonstrate the value of your offerings.
  • Offer comparisons: Show how your product or service outperforms competitors in terms of benefits.
  • Build your business case on how your product or service will impact one of your customer’s value drivers

Streamlining Your Sales Process

The benefits of streamlining your sales process.

A streamlined formal sales process leads to increased efficiency and effectiveness, which ultimately results in higher sales. Teams who design and implement a formal sales process typically experience a 15% increase in revenue within 12 months. Your sales process must be designed based on how your customers buy today.

Tips for streamlining your process

  • Utilize technology: Use CRM systems and sales automation tools to manage and track leads.
  • Define clear steps: Outline a clear sales process with specific steps for your sales team to follow.
  • Define what must occur to move a sale through your formal sales process to the next phase
  • Continuously optimize: Regularly review and update your sales process based on data and feedback.
  • Identify messaging and tools for each phase of your sales process
  • Have the discipline to follow it
  • Have sales managers who hold sales teams accountable to follow it

Creating Urgency

The importance of creating urgency?

Creating urgency encourages customers to make a purchase decision quickly. This can help you close deals faster and improve your overall sales. We often help salespeople by changing their beliefs. One limiting belief we need to change is if I quote the customer they will buy when they are ready. If your team is following this belief, you are losing sales you could have won. When we train salespeople and equip them with selling skills, we teach them how to create urgency so the buyer takes action, More deals are lost to no action than to competitors today.

Strategies for creating urgency

  • Limited time offers: With inflation pressures we are recommending quotes only be vail for 30 days.
  • Time-sensitive – when qualifying the opportunity clearly understand when the customer needs the problem solved
  • Scarcity: Highlight the limited availability of your product or service to encourage prompt action.
  • Identify for the customer the cost of doing nothing. How will doing nothing impact their bottom-line and their customer satisfaction?

Monitoring and Analyzing Sales Data

The benefits of monitoring and analyzing sales data?

Tracking and analyzing sales data allows you to identify areas for improvement, optimize your sales strategies, and make data-driven decisions. In my next book: Explosive Growth we share there is dollars in your data if you know where to look. Customers no longer want reps, they want consultants masquerading as salespeople. We must bring our customers actionable insights based on data.

Tips for effectively tracking and analyzing sales data

  • Set measurable goals: Establish clear, quantifiable objectives for your sales team.
  • Use analytics tools: Leverage sales analytics software to gather and analyze data.
  • Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs): Track metrics such as conversion rates, average deal size, and sales cycle length.
  • Regularly review data: Schedule periodic data reviews to identify trends and make adjustments to your sales strategies.
  • Set KPIs based on leading and lagging indicators

Encouraging Customer Referrals

The power of customer referrals for small business growth?

Customer referrals are a powerful way to grow your small business. When we conduct voice of customer research over 90% of customers would be happy to give referrals if asked but sadly less than 12% of salespeople ask for referrals. Who better to ask than someone who is happy , satisfied and believes your team is competent in your area and they trust you? People trust recommendations from friends and family, making referrals a highly effective sales strategy.

Strategies for encouraging and incentivizing customer referrals

  • Conduct voice of customer research and identify high net promotor scores
  • Make it easy: Simplify the referral process by providing a clear call-to-action and easy-to-use referral tools.
  • Ask for referrals: Remind customers to share their experiences with others and provide testimonials.
  • Show appreciation: Thank customers for their referrals and let them know you value their support.

Network and Build Relationships

Connecting with other business owners, industry professionals, and potential customers can help you grow your sales. Over 90% of my business comes from referrals. When I launched my business, I identified other business services that helped my target of small to mid-sized companies but di don’t offer similar services. I send them referrals and they send me referrals. I encourage all my clients to join local business Chamber groups and trade associations to build strategic relationships.

    • Attend industry events: Participate in conferences, trade shows, and networking events to meet new contacts and stay up to date on industry trends.
    • Join local business groups: Connect with other small business owners in your area to share ideas and collaborate on projects.
    • Build relationships: Focus on building genuine, long-term relationships with your contacts to increase the likelihood of referrals and repeat business.
    • Give first, refer you customers to the new people you meet and watch their referrals gow

Developing a Strong Sales Team

The importance of a strong effective sales team for small business success?

A strong sales team is crucial for the success of your small business. Well-trained and motivated salespeople can effectively sell your products or services and drive revenue. The sad reality is less than 50% of salespeople have received sales skills training. They know your product, service and applications, but they lack the skills to start conversations that are so compelling they lead to revenue.

In addition to skills, we must have the right sales structure based on the way your customers want to buy. More and more of my clients are adapting a hybrid sales model. Some of the sale occurs virtually and some face to face. We need to make sure you have the right people in the right roles to reach your revenue growth targets. Here we leverage sales effectiveness assessments to ensure the people in the roles have the right skills.

We also use the sales prehire assessment to not waste time interviewing candidates who lack the skills , beliefs, and motivations to do the job you need them to do.

Tips for hiring and training an effective sales team

  • Use as sales effectiveness assessment instrument not just a personality test
  • Hire for attitude and potential: Look for candidates with a positive attitude and the potential to grow and adapt.
  • Provide ongoing training: Invest in regular training and development programs to keep your sales team up to date on industry trends and best practices.
  • Hire salespeople with the right skills by role in your sales structure
  • Set clear expectations: Clearly communicate goals and expectations to your sales team.
  • Offer support and resources: Provide your sales team with the tools and resources they need to succeed.
  • Develop a formal onboarding training program
  • Interview for competency and cultural fit with your organization’s values

Conclusion

 

To sum up, the 10 effective sales strategies for small businesses covered in this article are:

  1. Understanding your customers and target market(s)
  2. Building relationships with customers
  3. Leveraging social media
  4. Focusing on benefits, not features
  5. Streamlining your sales process
  6. Creating urgency
  7. Monitoring and analyzing sales data
  8. Encouraging customer referrals
  9. Developing a strong sales team

By implementing these strategies, you can set your small business up for success and drive growth. Remember, effective sales strategies are the backbone of any thriving small business, so take the time to invest in and refine your approach.

If you would like our help assessing your current sales team’s skills, sales process and training your sales reps to become the trusted advisors your customers want and need, lets schedule a call.

Leverage Video to Grow New Opportunities and Revenue

The results are in, and top sales performers are growing their skills with technology like creating personalized videos and social selling. Is your SEO producing the leads your team needs to hit its goals? If not, you may want to consider adding videos to your website and business development campaigns. Video marketing is proven to increase your online engagement and conversions. The Google algorithms like video help your rank. This article explores ways video can improve your incoming leads and revenue.

 

Improved SEO

 

Let’s face it, we are swamped, and few people read anymore. People regularly search for short videos that answer problems they are facing. Countless surveys show that people are more engaged with video content than written content; video content is a little more passive; it requires less engagement from your target audience, which helps to deliver a message more effectively. It’s one way to improve your site’s SEO.

 

Of course, video marketing is not the only SEO strategy you need; you must have researched effective keywords, optimized your on-page SEO for a better user experience, and created content that provides genuine value to your target audience. But video promotion helps.

 

When building your video content strategy, use the data you have gathered from SEO research on keywords and phrases, top words and phrases your competitors use, and so on.

Working with clients, we often build a content map for the next three to six months based on the word, phrases, and problems clients are searching for.

 

Better Engagement

 

Video content allows your users to engage with the website for longer and increases the chances of converting customers. It also conveys your culture and how to you help customers in a way the written word cannot. The key is to be authentically you, and your content must educate and have the worthy intent to help others watching it.

 

People buy for two reasons: competence and trust. A video content strategy will build trust, and if you map your content strategy strategically will demonstrate competence and your experience.

 

Brand Engagement

 

Videos require less thought and, therefore, more engagement for users. Although written content can be designed to capture the audience’s attention and deliver a call to action, video content is far more effective. Years ago, I shared a short video on where CEOs turn when they have a business problem.

So many business leaders shared this short video my discovery calls were full for 60 days, and many of those calls turned into clients.

 

Of course, you don’t want to be too promotional regarding your brand message; you want to provide your customers and prospects with a value-added service that offers high-quality content relating to your brand without promoting brand identification.

 

More Conversions

 

Make no mistake; conversions increase with video promotions on your website. People love to see someone promoting a product or service they are already interested in. If you have their interest to this point, chances are you can move them over the line with video. I shared this short video about how “sales reps” must evolve to be trusted advisors.

 

The secret is to have a clear video cut in all the right places to increase the punch of the message. Like conventional selling, you want to keep the target audience engaged with the product without overwhelming them with a sales pitch. Always offer additional value with video.

 

Better Shares

 

Video content is very sharable. These days there are many platforms people use for personal and commercial sharing. If you want to make your brand more visible in digital spaces, get in front of the camera and start creating video content. It engages viewers more quickly, helps to build your brand, and is more shareable than conventional written marketing formats.

 

If you want our help strategically designing your video content and messaging strategy, please call us, and we will be happy to help you.

 

 

 

How To Improve Your Sales Training: 5 Top Methods

man standing in front of people sitting beside table with laptop computers

Every company needs to ensure its sales team works as effectively as possible. That means ensuring everyone’s highly trained in all aspects of the sales process, products, systems, and tools. Sometimes, sales training does not deliver the desired results.

Why?

  • You train salespeople on all products and skills, not knowing the ones they need
  • Death by PowerPoint, no interaction
  • One and done, one training and no reinforcement or applications
  • No skills assessment to guide needed training
  • Wrong delivery mode
  • No peer-to-peer learning
  • No new behavior changes

If that’s the case, you’ll need to know how to improve your sales training.

You can do this in multiple ways, some of which might be more practical and effective than others. Five of these stand out, as they’ll impact your training process more than others.

They’ll have your sales team closing more deals before you know it.

1. Assess the Skills, Motivations, and Beliefs of the Sales team

How effective is your sales team? How much more effective could they be? What if you identified sales skills goals and closed them? What would be the impact on your net income to increase the sales effectiveness of your team?

These are all great questions a strong sales assessment instrument will answer.

The instrument we use reviews 21 sales competencies while identifying motivations and beliefs.

Once we review the team sales effectiveness and improvement analysis report, we can prescribe specific sales skills training, coaching, systems improvements, and needed sales tools.

2. Make It Flexible

Your employees will naturally be busy. If they’re already on the job, they’ll likely have customers to see and deals to close. You’ll need to be flexible with your sales training to ensure you can work it around their schedule.

We recommend you prescribe blended, stacked sales training programs that leverage asynchronous online learning, live virtual training, instructor-led training, content quizzes, and application exercises.

For example, employees won’t be able to learn effectively if they’re worried about the sales presentation they’re missing out on. By building flexibility into your sales training, you also give them the time they need to learn in a way that best suits them.

It also makes the training more convenient for everyone involved.

3. Provide the Right Resources

Employees will need a certain number of resources to learn how to sell. You wouldn’t get into investing without trading guides, so why expect your employees to sell without selling guides? They must learn how to sell with your company by giving them the resources. You make things much easier.

That goes beyond giving them an employee manual and expecting them to make some sales. Learning materials, guides, software, and similar resources will all be vital.

That makes their training much easier while giving them something to rely on long-term.

We often use the application exercises after each training module to build sales playbooks and battle cards.

4. Offer Cross-Department Training

While the training should primarily be sales-focused, your employees must understand how they fit into the rest of the company. They mightn’t be able to do that without knowing how the other roles work and what other employees do.

By offering cross-department training, you can help them with this. You give them more empathy for their colleagues while building team spirit. You also let them understand that everyone’s working toward shared goals.

5. Good sales skills training facilitates peer-to-peer learning

Every sales team has recent employees, employees who have been in their role for 5-10 years, and seasoned salespeople with over 20 years of sales experience.

Leading sales training facilitates the exchange among salespeople to learn best practices and how to handle common objections.

Often, we find that veteran salespeople with over 20 years of experience have knowledge not captured anywhere, and we must capture it and teach our entire teams how to use it.

Other benefits include:

  • Increasing employee skill sets
  • Avoiding skills gaps
  • Improving communication between departments
  • Increased sales
  • Increased market share
  • Increased profits

The advantages of cross-department training make it more than worth it.

How To Improve Your Sales Training: Wrapping Up

You could reach a plateau with your team if you don’t know how to improve your sales training. They mightn’t convert as many customers as you want them to, so you’ll miss out on a noticeable amount of revenue. This is revenue you could have and should have won if your salesperson was trained in selling skills. Over 50% of salespeople today have not been trained in selling skills. Their training was focused on products and systems.

By offering cross-department training, making it flexible, and providing the right resources, you’ll be much closer to increasing your sales and creating a more effective sales team. You’ll see more revenue in time, making your business more profitable and successful.

 

The training sticks when sales training is delivered in different modes based on the skills the salespeople have and need, coupled with application exercises and times to practice their skills.

 

Would you like to assess how effective your sales team is today?

 

Would you like to close skills gaps that are costing your sales team sales today, like closing skills, negotiations, and discovery skills?

 

Let’s schedule a call to chat about your sales training program and how we can improve your sales team’s results in a shorter amount of time.

Tips to Engage with New Customers

two men facing each other while shake hands and smiling

As a business owner, it’s important for you to be constantly working on the development of your company. Part of the development is continuously bringing new customers to your business through referrals, social media, direct traffic to your website, or your organic reach. By doing so, you’ll find your profit increases, allowing you to spend this revenue on other areas of your business, such as your marketing team or developing your sales team.

 

In simple terms, sales is an art and a science. The art is in having conversations that lead to revenue. The science is data-driven sales. What does the data tell you about your ideal new customer? What have you seen help a buyer on their journey to becoming a customer? The more customers who visit your site or contact your sales team, the more likely you will make a sale as long as they match your ideal customer profile. So how do you reach new customers? From improving your website to entering new markets and using conference translation software to help you with this, we have put together our guide on tips for reaching new customers.

Improve your website

When was the last time you performed a digital footprint audit of your website? Your website is one of the most important sales tools you have. If it’s not modernized, then you may need a new one. If it is, then using a UX/UI expert could help you spot potential opportunities within your website and any errors that could reduce the number of new customers reaching out to you. Your website is essentially a shop floor but through the web. Every day customers could search for your services, but if your website is not up to scratch, they could be landing on your site but leaving instantly – just like you would if you walked into a store only to notice it looks a little run down.

Engage with customers leveraging social media 

One trait all top-performing salespeople have in common is they are active in social selling. They reach out to customers on various social platforms to complement their efforts by cold calling, attending conferences and trade shows, as well as their email campaigns.

Ask for referrals

Do you ask your sales team to ask for referrals? It’s a simple tip but can work extremely well. Whenever they complete a sale, and they feel the customer is happy with the service they provided, simply ask them if they know of anyone who could benefit from your services. You could ask them to reach out to you or ask them if you can reach out on their behalf. It’s a well-known fact that referrals convert to sales a lot quicker than any other technique. Plus, you can add a referral scheme to entice people to refer even when you haven’t asked, increasing your referrals even more.

 

When one association interviewed customers, they found over 80% would refer a salesperson if they were asked to do so, but sadly, less than 15% of salespeople ask for referrals

 

What tips do you have for reaching new customers?

Are there any tips from the above that you found particularly helpful?

Let us know in the comment box below.

 

Would you like to chat about how to engage with more new customers? Please send me a message or give me a call.

 

 

4 Steps to Marketing Your Business More Effectively

 

For over 30 years, we have helped small to mid-sized businesses experience what we refer to as “explosive” sales growth. One company grew from $30 million to $78 million in 18 months, another grew from $14 million- and six years later was sold for over $90 million.

As a business owner, it’s your sole responsibility to sell your products and services to your clients and potential customers as effectively as possible. Making it your priority to market your business effectively will communicate a clear message to your potential clients and make them aware of your existence. We must identify and message your top three decision-making personas to your ideal customers. Once the broader market acknowledges your products and services, your marketing efforts begin to establish a foundation of growth for your business.

With a strong foundation, you can begin strategizing to engage customers, fulfill demand, and stand up against the competition in your marketplace. As you build brand recognition, you position your business to reap the benefits of a consistent client base. With that said, here are four steps to marketing your small business more effectively.

Having a solid brand as a business owner will put you at a place of advantage over your competitors. In my book: Branding Backward, we teach companies to brand with intent and not to brand by default.

Strive to make your brand a household name so you can improve your level of sales in the long run. When your business brand becomes reliable and trustworthy, customers will love to associate with it and may choose you over others in your industry. As this momentum builds, it is magic for your business regarding future growth. If you decide to expand into new physical premises, your financial buoyancy will open more financing options for your business. For example, you may be well-positioned to request a commercial mortgage from your local bank. Your application is more likely to succeed once your brand has established a clear record of financial success. When considering commercial mortgages, be sure to seek expert advice from reliable mortgage brokers familiar with the locale you operate.

The power of social media can never be underestimated in promoting a brand. It’s a platform that allows you to showcase your business to a massive audience. It’s also highly effective for collecting reviews from previous customers and creating offers and rewards for both old and new customers. Therefore, promoting your business on such platforms is advisable to give your business the needed mileage. It can also help you build customer loyalty. Ensure you have solid knowledge about your industry to achieve tremendous results online.

  • Partner with local businesses

 

Since many business elements can become complex and require a significant number of human resources, it will be prudent to partner with local businesses and liaise with them while working on a specific project. This is particularly the case when mutual benefits can be obtained from such projects. For instance, you can partner with some procurement officers to help you purchase the right tools and equipment for an ongoing project. This makes it easier for your business and helps create a rapport to buy products at affordable prices.

  • Ask for referrals

At every step oolong your marketing plan, it’s important to seek referrals from your clients and customers. This allows potential clients to feel comfortable and build trust with your brand. Remember that you can only ask for referrals when you provide a quality service for your clients and are genuine and polite while dealing with them. Doing this gives you an upper hand in business.

When surveyed, over 85% of business leaders said they would provide a referral if someone asked but sadly, in the case of salespeople, less than 15% ask today.

How do we ask for a referral on LinkedIn?

If your team would like help experiencing “explosive growth,” let’s schedule a time to talk.

 

 

Seven Innovative Ways to Drive Strategic Growth

The lifeblood of any company is its ability to grow and expand. Without growth, a company will eventually stagnate and die. This can be difficult for business owners, as it requires creativity and innovation. This blog post will discuss seven innovative ideas for company growth. Some of these may be familiar to you, while others may be new concepts entirely.

Diversification

Renew and update your business model

Voice of Customer Research

Focus on Customer retention

Invest in technology

Expand your Marketing Efforts

Sales Training and Coaching

1) Diversification.

One way to ensure growth for your company is to diversify your products and services. This can be done by expanding into new markets or developing new products that appeal to a broader customer base. By doing this, you are not putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, and therefore reducing the risk of stagnation.

Diversification can be difficult as it requires detailed market research and a thorough understanding of your target audience. However, if done correctly, it can lead to significant growth for your company.

Some ideas for diversification include:

  • Expanding into new markets
  • Developing new products or services
  • Offering customized solutions
  • Focusing on niche markets
  • Expanding your business through Franchise Direct to reach and increase your customer base

2) Review and Update Your Business Model.

Another way to spur growth for your company is to review your business model. This means taking a close look at the way you do business and seeing if there are any areas that could be improved. This could involve anything from streamlining your processes to changing the way you market your products or services.

Reviewing your business model can identify areas where you may be losing money or customers. Once these areas have been identified, you can then take steps to rectify them, leading to increased growth for your company.

What should you keep doing?

What should you start doing?

What should you stop doing?

3) Capture the Voice of Your Customers:

Think about all the changes businesses have gone through during and post pandemic. How much has your business changed? Market leading organizations are conducting voice of customer research to better understand how buyers buy, what criteria they are using today to make buying decisions and understand your customers overall satisfaction. We recommend having a third party conduct this research to remove the concerns with bias. However, we recognize some clients cannot afford to engage our firm, so we wrote an eBook to help you Leverage the Voice of your Customers to increase revenue.

4) Focus on Customer Retention.

Acquiring new customers is important for any business, but it’s also important to focus on retaining the customers you already have. This can be done by providing excellent customer service and developing long-term relationships with your clients.

In one study 89% of CEOs shared having strong relationships with their clients is key to their success but sadly only 24% of those CEOs provided sales skills training on how to build business relationships.

Focusing on customer retention can ensure that your current customers remain loyal to your brand. This loyalty will lead to word-of-mouth marketing, which is one of the most effective forms of marketing. In turn, this can lead to increased growth for your company.

Some ideas for focusing on Customer Retention:

  • Developing long-term relationships with clients
  • Offering excellent customer service
  • Focusing on customer satisfaction
  • Building a solid brand identity
  • Leverage data and build win-win
  • Build multiple relationships with key account decision makers

5) Invest in Technology.

Technology is always changing, and it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Investing in new technology can improve your products and services, making them more efficient and effective. This can lead to increased growth as your customers will be more satisfied with your offerings.

It’s important to note that you don’t need to invest in the latest and greatest technology; sometimes, simply investing in updating your current technology can be enough to spur growth.

Some ideas for investing in technology:

  • Audit your current sales tech stack
  • Updating your current technology
  • Investing in new software or hardware
  • Automating processes
  • Improving website design

6) Expand Your Marketing Efforts.

Another way to encourage growth for your company is to expand your marketing efforts. This could involve anything from increasing your budget to launching a new marketing campaign. By developing your marketing, you will reach a wider audience and generate more leads, which can lead to increased sales and growth for your company.

Some ideas for expanding your marketing efforts:

  • Increasing your advertising budget
  • Update your value message by business persona
  • Launching a new marketing campaign
  • Investing in digital marketing
  • Developing a social media strategy
  • Speak in the language of your customers
  • Market solutions not products

7) Sales Training and Coaching

Buyers have spoken and 33% chose not to work with salespeople today and the numbers are growing. In one study 85% of buyers shared they expect a salesperson to connect the dots between what they sell and how it can impact the buyers bottom-line. Sadly, less than 15% of salespeople do this today. In a one-hour meeting with the average sales rep how many minutes were valuable to the buyer and or decisionmaker? SIX! Only six minutes because salespeople show up, throw up and they pitch slap their customers when they should be having conversations that lead to revenue.

Some ideas to train your salespeople

  • Complete a sales effectiveness assessment
  • Identify sales skills gaps
  • Train salespeople to close gaps
  • Equip sales managers to coach the new sales skills

In conclusion, there are many ways to encourage growth for your company. By implementing some of the ideas listed above, you can take your business to the next level. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and see the results for yourself!

As always if your tea needs help let’s schedule a tie to chat.

 

 

Top 7 Signs your Sales Team is Selling Naked

By Mark Roberts

 

As companies adjust and learn to sell in the midst of a pandemic we need to clearly understand our buyers and the problems they have now and the skills our salespeople need to be effective. Unfortunately many salespeople are using dated value propositions, sales processes, sales tools and lack sales skills training …they are selling naked.

 

One of my favorite children’s is a book: The Emperor’s New Clothes. If you are not familiar with the story: there once was an emperor who spent a great deal on money on clothes. One day two swindlers came to town and said they would make the emperor clothes the most beautiful he has ever seen, but if anyone could not see the clothes they were unfit for their positions.

 

The deception begins and the emperor does not want to admit he can’t see the clothes so he pretends to put on this invisible garment. His minister does not want to admit they do not see it in fear of being judged unfit so they pretend to see it and they compliment the emperor.

The emperor proceeds to walk around town naked and no one tells him until he comes across a little boy who is our heretic in this story and shares the emperor is naked.

I was recently asked to be a guest on the popular podcast MFG Out loud and the hosts were intrigued by this idea of salespeople being forced to sell naked and they asked I unpack this topic a bit. In this post we will discuss the 7 signs your sales team is selling naked.

 

1.) If your sales team cannot quickly share your repeatable sales process…they are selling Naked!

Let’s start with the sales process itself.

The process of sales does not need to be as difficult as we make it.

Market leading organizations understand it all starts with understanding your market, buyers, and the process and criteria they use to make buying decisions.

Once you have a clear understanding of your buyers you position your product or service in your market with a value proposition that resonates with your buyers and you are on a path to a sale.

When I work with sales teams we discover with our skills assessment they do not have a formal repeatable sales process and this is an interruption for most CEO’s. Their salespeople are basically winging it each day, with each customer and on each call.

I refer to winging it as “random acts of sales.”

(no wonder CEO’s are frustrated that sales seems like more of a dark art than a science)

As businesses reset and retool we can’s afford random acts of sales and must give sales teams a system to follow that drives the profitable outcomes we expect.

This can quickly be corrected with voice of the customer research and conducting a sales skills assessment.

Once you develop a sales process based on how your buyers are buying you must train your sales team and coach them to use each step..

2.) If your sales team cannot share your value proposition …they are selling Naked!

If your sales team is using a dated value proposition it will no longer resonate with your buyers and will damage the buyers perception of your salesperson’s competency and their ability to trust them.

When your sales team lacks a current value proposition and distinction from competitors they are being asked to sell naked.

We can create a value proposition that connects with your top buyer personas and train your salespeople when and how to use them as we develop their selling skills.

3.) If your sales team has not received sales skills training…they are selling Naked!

With as high as 50% of salespeople not receiving any sales skills training we should not be surprised when we observe clogged or non existent sales pipelines.

We should not become angry when salespeople sell on price and not value.

We should not become disappointed when salespeople lack the ability to strategically grow their current customers.

The good news is this is easily corrected with sales skills training and prescriptive analytics.

4.) If your sales team has not received business acumen training …they are selling Naked!

Today’s buyers want and value salespeople who deliver ways to add more value to their bottom-line.

How can your salespeople sell based on value if they do not have business acumen training?

Are your salespeople speaking the language of business and able to create a compelling business case?

5.) If your website has not been updated in the last year…they are selling Naked!

With as high as 70% of the sales process being over before a buyer speaks with your salesperson your website is more critical than ever.

The difficulty arises when companies have a website that is more of a virtual brochure about them and not the problems that they solve for their customers and not leveraging digital marketing best practices.

Buyers are searching for solutions to their problems. They are looking for companies and salespeople who can provide more than a transaction.

Does your website share the problems you solve?

Do you offer e-commerce for buyers who know what they want and can quickly and easily buy?

In the last 90 days have you adjusted your value proposition and messaging on your website based on the needs of your buyers today?

6.) If you have not provided virtual sales skills training…they are selling Naked!

 Covid-19 has impacted the way we serve our customers.

Many states implemented constraints that caused salespeople to sell virtually.

A big issue we need to unpack is almost 60% of salespeople will have difficulty working remotely without training and coaching. (This statistic comes from the sales skills assessment tool I use that has assessed over 2 million salespeople globally.)

Have you provided your salespeople virtual sales skills training and the technical tools to be effective and efficient in virtual sales?

Have you trained and coached your salespeople how to build meaningful business relationships virtually?

Are your salespeople calling all your current customers and implementing a retention strategy?

7.) If you have not assessed your sales teams’ skills by role…they are selling Naked!

How effective is your sales team today?

How much more effective could they be?

How long would it take to improve their sales effectiveness?

What impact would improving your sales team’s effectiveness have on your bottom line?

Are your salespeople selling based on value or just price?

All of the above and much more can be answered by conducting a sales skills assessment. With this valuable information you can quickly make sure you have the right people in the right roles and develop sales skills training to close any skills gaps you discover.

With all the changes we have seen in the last 90 days it’s imperative you have the right salesperson in the right role with the right skills.

As I shared in a recent podcast, Warren Buffet’s quote is particularly relevant in today’s business climate

“ When the tide goes out you can tell who has been swimming naked”

90 days ago the biggest challenge most businesses had was finding and retaining employees to support their growth

Business was good and growing.

Many leaders had plans to invest in sales skills training, digital marketing and exploring inside sales models. But sales were coming in and they did not want to rock the boat. They were so busy in the business they did not have time to work on the business.

As the revenue tide went out for many businesses, it became very apparent their sales teams needed training and coaching.

With as high as 50% of salespeople not receiving any formal sales skills training in skills like: qualifying, discovery, up selling, cross selling, consultative sales, how to build strategic business relationships, negotiations skills, value based sales skills, closing skills we should not be surprised many sales people are struggling and selling naked today.

Unlike the king in our story the sad reality is your salespeople in many cases know they are selling naked.

They may not call it “selling naked” but what they have always done is no longer working today

The sales team and sales managers know something is wrong but they do not know what it is

Some are just trying harder and working longer hours making more phone calls and growing more stressed, frustrated and fearful each day.

Are your salespeople selling naked today?

If any one of the 7 signs I shared is happening in your organization your team is selling naked and losing sales they could have won.

Spend time assessing your sales teams skills and the voice of your customers and provide your salespeople the training tools and coaching to help them stop feeling naked and afraid when calling buyers today.

If you would like my help assessing your sales skills, net profit by customer and understanding the current voice of your customers let’s schedule a call.

To learn more about selling naked you can visit this post titled: Stop Asking your Salespeople to Sell Naked

 

 

One Data Point Most Sales Teams Miss When Restructuring the Sales Organization

By Mark Roberts

 

In my last post I shared insights from an excellent article published in Harvard Business Publications. Why this article was timely and needed is several CEO’s and CFO’s as well as business owners, Private Equity firms and Venture Capital firms are all having discussions on how to reduce costs but not hurt future performance. How do I save the business today and not set it up to fail in the future?  I shared a tool to help business leaders consider much more than revenue by salesperson when rightsizing and retooling their sales teams in my last post. There is one critical Data point everyone must consider in addition when reorganizing and restructuring sales organizations but sadly most will not.

In this post I will share what this last piece of critical information is you must capture to strategically pivot, reset, retool and reorganize your sales organization to survive today and thrive post Covid-19.

 

As I work with business leaders they are frustrated and often anxious about the future of their business. If you have been in business for a while like me, you have lived through economic disruption and challenges. You adjusted and survived in 2008 and the stock market volatility. You may have seen some revenue disruption after 911 but your team adjusted and grew through those challenges.

Many businesses have seen disruption since the growth of Internet shopping and quickly pivoted and now offer ecommerce on their websites. Many B2B businesses have been forced to reset and adjust their go to market strategy as Amazon is quickly becoming a dominant force in B2B product sales and is disrupting traditional channel partner relationships. If any one of these disruptions were to hit again, we know what to do. We know what we learned before, remember what worked and what failed and have a playbook of sorts to dust off, maybe update a bit and then implement.

Covid -19 is nothing like what we have ever experienced before and therefore many teams are struggling to develop a strategic plan to not only survive but also thrive after Covid-19.

What makes this current disruption so unique and hard to navigate?

Covid -19 was not a single event we experienced and worked through. It is an on going event with new information daily. Not all businesses have been impacted the same. Some businesses have seen little disruption, some have experienced an increase in revenue and many have seen orders drop off 30% or more. Many businesses are dealing with canceled orders they built product for, customers having difficulty paying their bills on time not to mention the emotional toll this crisis has had on employees, their families and coworkers.

We are adapting with virtual selling, and Zoom calls are becoming the norm for many once outside sales professionals. Salespeople are using this time to up skill and adjust how they serve their customers by leading with empathy and improving our active listening skills to truly understand how our customers are dealing with this crisis, how have their businesses been impacted and how can we best serve them today?

Sadly, some organizations are making knee jerk reactions to this challenge without looking at data and taking a broader view. They are downsizing their workforce, implementing mandatory furloughs and pay cuts until they have more information to develop a more strategic plan. I see many distributors for example significantly reducing inventory and counting on their manufacturer partners for drop shipping orders. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of anxiety, concern and even fear.

The good news is you have a strong leadership team with experienced people. They have proven time and time again if given unfiltered data that is prescriptive they can develop strategic plans to survive now and thrive when we come out of this crisis many of us are experiencing.

As I shared in my last post teams are gathering data as fast as they can and searching for trends to develop scenarios and identifying specific trigger events that will activate their future plans. Teams are pouring over KPI data hungry for insights to develop plans and lead their teams through this disruptive market condition. The trouble is many leaders have tunnel vision looking at lagging indicators and need to have a much broader and creative view of this situation to develop the right strategic plans.

As I eluded to in my last post there is one major data point I always consider when retooling and reorganizing sales most teams most leaders are not considering that would add tremendous insight to not only survive today but be one of the few organizations that makes strategic pivots now and thrives post Covid-19.

 

What is this illusive data point most teams are failing to consider?

 

Your customers!

 

Now is the time to intimately understand your customers and be able to answer questions like:

 

Why do customers buy from you?

 

Why don’t customers buy from you?

 

What do your customers consider your value proposition to be today?

 

How are your buyers buying?

 

Have your buyers’ buying journey changed in the last 30 days?

 

Do your buyers have new buying criteria they did not have 30 days ago?

 

What do your buyers want and expect today?

 

What are you doing today they no longer value but is adding to your cost to serve?

 

In a Harvard article recently released titled: The Most Important Metric You are not Tracking Yet, the author shares how most organizations consider themselves to be customer centric, but they are failing to take into consideration how their customers’ needs and expectations have changed since Covid.

 

Many teams again are pouring over inward facing KPI’s looking for insights, but they are failing to understand CPI’s.

 

What’s a CPI?

 

A CPI is Customer Performance Indicators.

 

The author shares there are two elements for something to be a CPI:

  1. Outcomes customers say are important to them
  2. Outcomes are measures in increments important to the customer

 

What are some increments that are important to customers?

Time

Convenience

Options

Dollars Saved

Value Delivered

 

Many people think CPI’s are the same as your Net Promotor Score. Your NPS is one of your KPI’s and measures if someone would recommend, refer others to do business with you. NPS unlike a CPI however does not provide the connection to single intended customer outcomes.

Who in your organization might value a current CPI?

  • Marketing – how customers are buying, where are they shopping. how they are making buying decisions and what is their exit criteria today?
  • Sales– what do buyers want and need from salespeople today? What are their expectations on services like speed of quote, minimum order quantities, terms, returns…?
  • Product Management– understanding product use cases and identifying if product requirements have changed
  • Customer Service – customer expectations on metrics like first time issue resolution, ease of accessing someone, ability to resolve issues quickly and completely
  • Operations – customer expectations with regards to order accuracy, turnaround time, shipping orders complete
  • Finance – tracking and reporting the value you have provided the customer with your product or solution

To make strategic decisions in such a volatile and uncertain  business climate we need to consider various sets data not emotion.

We not only need to gather internal data and customer voice insights but we also need to do so quickly because in many cases if it takes you months to gather information it will be to late by the time you try to use it.

 

Companies who will survive and thrive post Covid -19 will gather data quickly, capture the voice of their customers and establish current CPI’s then assess their sales and other teams on their ability to deliver to the customer stated needs and expectations. Sales organizations that will not only survive but become market leaders post Covid-19 will gather data quickly accessing many data points and develop strategic plans for today and post Covid -19. They will be Agile and adapt and often pivot long before their competitors in fear mode making decisions based on emotion.

 

It’s time to gather your internal and customer voice data to help your team develop your strategic plans to weather the Covid-19 storm and come out stronger and more effective when it passes. I my goal in this post was to coach everyone to find the voice of their customers today when shaping their sales and service organizations for today and the future.

Leveraging data coupled with voice of your customer feedback is a proven no smoke and mirrors process I have used for over 30 years to help organizations experience explosive sales and profit growth.

If you would prefer my help providing unfiltered, unbiased data in 7-10 business days lets schedule a call and I would be honored to serve your team and position your team to become stronger today and a market leader in the future.

 

 

 

 

How to Make Tough Sales Structure Decisions?

By Mark Allen Roberts

 

Many business owners and CEO’s are trying to determine the best strategic adjustments they need to make now and post Covid-19. Some leaders talk about surviving right now, keeping their head above water, not needing to close locations and so on. Many share it is difficult to develop a plan with so much uncertainty and chaos.

 

A select few leaders however are focused on not just surviving but thriving after Covid-19. For those of you who wish to use this current time to retool and reorganize your sales team to meet buyer needs today and in the future, Harvard Business Review published an excellent article: Right Personnel Decisions Now to Thrive After the Crisis.

 

In this post I will share some of the insights from the article and discuss how to position your business now to thrive after Covid-19.

 

The article starts, and rightfully so, reminding us cash is king in such challenging and turbulent times. Leaders must review the data they have today, conduct scenario simulations and make strategic decisions to improve your cash position. This topic of improving your cash position is a topic I am confident many thought leaders are writing about and I will not discuss this in this post.

 

Why this timely article captured my attention is the author does an excellent job of sharing how to make strategic decisions about your people.

 

The author shares there are basically 4 categories of people decisions

 

Repurposing

 

Identify what parts of your business are slow or have stopped completely and how can you repurpose the people that support those areas to new areas to add value today.

 

For example most sales teams have salespeople who are outside salespeople. Their typical week involves traveling and meeting with their customers and helping them solve problems. In many states these salespeople are being repurposed to inside virtual sales roles. The difficulty some teams are experiencing is we have found only 41% of salespeople today have the skills, discipline and mindset to work remotely.

 

If you find yourself having outside salespeople working virtually you may wish to assess their virtual selling skills and provide training for any skills gaps you discover.

 

My prediction is many sales teams will reorganize to leverage the productivity of an inside sales model once we emerge from Covid-19. Many the CFO’s I speak with are sharing they are seeing a drop in top line sales but an even more significant drop in sales expense. They will be challenging sales leaders to ensure the sales organization of the future maximizes the return on sales expense and explore more virtual sales in the future.

 

Engagement

 

Prior to Covid -19 many teams had concerns with employee engagement. Some studies shared as much as 65% of employees are not engaged and doing just enough to get by. This was costing organizations billions before Covid-19.

 

The author shares a key part of getting through a crisis is bringing your top performing team members with you and keeping them engaged.

 

Has your organization done an employee engagement research study?

 

What % of your team was not engaged?

 

What % of your team is not engaged today?

 

When it comes to salespeople we look for their engagement in their Sales DNA. This part of the assessment helps us discover their sales beliefs and motivations. On some teams I have worked with as high as 30% of the current team lack the will to sell. In other words they joined the sales team but lack the commitment, motivation and often sales skills to drive revenue growth. We need to consider engagement as we reorganize and retool our sales organizations for the future.

 

Learning, Retooling, Up skilling

 

As teams prepare to become more buyer centric they will often need additional training and up skilling for new roles. Many teams are currently assessing if they have the right salespeople in the right roles and if not what changes will need to be made.

 

As teams strategically use assessments, performance reviews and transaction data to identify the right person for the right roles, there will be a need for training.

 

One of the biggest pushback’s I have received from salespeople about training is: I don’t have the time. When we look at how salespeople spend their time, the average outside salesperson spending 15% of there sellable time traveling, and since they are not traveling now…they have the time. Let’s use this time wisely and prepare our salespeople with individualized learning plans that equip them to be successful in their current and or new roles.

 

The author reinforces the need to identify skills gaps now and use this time to close these gaps now.

 

Right Sizing

 

The hardest part of adjusting your organization to a shift of this magnitude is letting people go. Downsizing, furloughing, laying people off, eliminating their positions…whatever you call it is tough and very emotional. It is a leaders job to make the tough calls based on the best information they have today and very emotionally draining.

 

However as a leader its something we must do after exhausting all other strategies to protect our balance sheet today and in the future. Your mission is to make decisions to survive now and thrive when we come out of Covid-19.

 

Having been through market downturns over my past 36 years leading sales teams I know how difficult these decisions can be. Admittedly I have never led a team though something like Covid-19 with so much uncertainty.

 

My recommendation is take a data driven approach to making these tough decisions.

 

I can tell you how I’ve seen teams reorganize their sales teams the wrong way. I have seen some teams look strictly at their forced ranking performance reviews. They identify those associates who scored the lowest and target them for downsizing.

 

The trouble with this strategy alone is you may be letting some people go you should be saving or could save with additional training and sales coaching. What I have observed is forced ranking performance systems often give you the wrong data.

 

The leading problem I have observed is many performance systems are subjective based on opinion and not data. They become popularity contests and sales managers protect salespeople like them. They keep the easy sales reps who act and think like the manager and often these are not top performers when you study transaction data metrics like profit per sale, new business, and return on sales expense.

 

With 50% of salespeople today receiving no sales skills training it should not shock us to learn most sales managers have not been trained. Without training in how to motivate, lead and coach salespeople all they can do is compare how this salesperson behaves compared to the behaviors they did when they are a salesperson. Add that many sales managers today came up through the sales ranks before the internet, before social selling and even before cell phones in some cases, they are often judging your salespeople’s sales competencies based on an outdated sales process.

 

What is my suggestion to solving this complex sales team right sizing, re tooling problem?

 

Consider many data points and leverage data to make decisions not gut and intuition.

 

You need to answer the question: Do I have the right salespeople in the right roles? 

 

The author suggests you make sure and understand the unit economics before you lay anyone off or terminate their employment. She suggests a thorough evaluation by solution, market, and customer segment.

 

Another mistake I see teams’ make when the CEO tells the CFO I need $XXX, XXX in cuts. The CFO runs sales by salesperson descending report. The CFO and Sales VP look at the Excel spread sheet and draw the line. Everyone above the line stays and everyone below the line is laid off or let go permanently.

 

Although they are using data to make difficult decisions, this process is often not the best for the long-term health of your sales teams’ results.

 

Many times I have seen the top salesperson by revenue is not the most skilled salesperson on the sales team. Often this person is someone who has been on the team the longest and or manages some of the largest accounts they were given years ago. Although they may carry some of the largest revenue numbers they often have poor farming or hunting skills. They often lack business acumen to have business discussions with buyers to help them build a business case to fund the purchase investment.

 

If you are sold on just running an Excel report and drawing the line…let me ask you a question to consider.

 

Of the salespeople above the line, if you were asked to open and grow a new sales territory would you choose them?

 

When I have asked sales leaders and sometimes CFO’s this question I receive an uncomfortable…No.

 

This method of restructuring and retooling your sales team does not identify team and individual skills gaps and therefore does not help you close gaps to help your sales team become more efficient and effective after Covid-19.

 

Again a sales assessment that measures sales skills competencies, motivations and beliefs coupled with sales transaction data and past performance data is the best method to make these hard decisions.

 

I use a tool called a smart sizing tool that considers the following when restructuring and rightsizing sales teams when necessary :

 

Revenue

Pipeline health

Sales skills

Sales beliefs

Sales motivation

Performance to KPI’s last 12 months

Compensation

Consultative sales skills

Ability to work remotely, virtually

Value based sales verse selling on price

 

As Rebecca Hones shares in this excellent and timely article we have 4 categories of people decisions when we face a crisis like we are in today as we discussed above.

 

Some of the leaders I speak with that serve the food industry and medical supplies and safety products industries have not seen a decrease and some have experienced a slight sales increase in the last 30 days.

 

If your business has not been disrupted and or is actually increasing consider yourself blessed.

 

I suggest this is a good time for you to assess the skills, beliefs and motivations of your top sales performers and strategically use this data to recruit new salespeople that match the sales DNA of your top performers.

 

If you find yourself and your team needing to make the tough decisions and wantt help with a data driven tool that helps you explore various sales organization structure scenarios, please contact me. Leveraging the smart sizing tool we can get you the insights to make current and future sales structure decisions within one week.

 

There is one other critical data point market leading organizations need to consider when reorganizing and retooling their sales organization and most teams do not even have it on the list right now.

 

In my next post I will share this additional information to ensure your sales reorganization drives the maximum value for your team.

 

 

 

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